Vice Chancellor appeals for President to safeguard TUs Act, 922

Sunyani- An appeal has been made to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to protect the interest of Technical University Education in the country, by safeguarding the Technical Universities (TUs) Act, 2016 (Act 922).

That would help to reduce the erroneous impression that people have about technical education as being a preserve of academically poor students.

Professor Kwadwo Adinkra-Appiah, the Vice-Chancellor of the Sunyani Technical University (STU) made the appeal on Saturday in Sunyani when he addressed the 10th congregation ceremony of the institution.

This, Prof. Adinkra-Appiah explained, was because if students opted for technical/vocational education, it did not mean they were academically poor but it was because they are more endowed with skills and virtuosity.

He said such students must rather be recognised and given the necessary support to go through the educational ladder, even to the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) level, which is what the TUs stand to provide.

Prof. Adinkra-Appiah assured Higher National Diploma (HND) students and graduates that the University would continue to offer the two-year top-up Bachelor of Technology programmes, so that they could progress to the next level on the academic ladder up to the Masters level, as the University prepared to roll-out Master of Technology (M-Tech) programmes in the near future.

He announced that the University in collaboration with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) had established the first driving school on a University campus in Ghana to train their students for the DVLA to issue them with driving licenses by the time they graduate.

Prof. Adinkra-Appiah said the objective of the establishment of the driving school was to give the students a competitive advantage in the job market and to also establish internally-generated fund for the institution.

Dr. Kwame Agyeman Boakye, the Chair of the University’s Governing Council noted that since its inauguration, the STU had been working within the framework of the TUs Act, 2016 (Act 922) to provide strategic direction to ensure the realisation of the aims and objectives of the institution.

He affirmed that the Council would therefore continue to ensure that all statutory structures within the University functioned appropriately to guarantee smooth academic work, as well as deal with staff and students matters with fairness and firmness.

That, he added would all be done in an effort to create value in support of the national development agenda.

Dr. Boakye urged the graduands to endeavour to put Ghana on a better trajectory for sustained socio-economic development that would lift the populace from poverty and improve their quality of life.

He stressed that they must in particular identify and look into opportunities to use Science, Technology, Engineering and Innovation to impact the communities where they would find themselves for the holistic development of the country.

A total of 1,605 graduands who successfully completed their programmes of study for the 2016/2017 academic year were awarded certificates in various professional disciplines such as Building Technology, Civil Engineering, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Computerised Accounting and Procurement Management.

The others were Higher National Diploma in Engineering, Applied Science and Technology as well as Business and Management Studies disciplines.